Cambridge High School Library 2024

 By: Denis Dwyer Location: NF 920 DWY Sport Genre: All Black Legend I loved reading the The Good Citizen- the story of Tom Ryan by Denis Dwyer, it was an incredible yarn of rugby, early travel, early art in Aotearoa and more importantly a pakeha pioneer who chose to engage in the Maori community in the Taupo region. I even went on a hikoi to see a few of the spots he captained his postal boat too around the lake. So when this book was published - it was a must for me. Denis writes well and keeps the narrative flowing as the story is told.  In the history of New Zealand sports, few players have achieved the legendary status of Billy Wallace - one of the first, and most gifted, rugby players to ever be associated with the game. In 1905 Billy Wallace was selected to represent New Zealand, touring the British Isles, France and North America, as part of a rugby team that became known as The Original All Blacks. It was during this landmark tour that Billy Wallace showed the rest of ...

 By: Megan Hopkins  Location: FIC HOP Genre: Middle Grade Fantas y Astrid has lived in the rhubarb shed her whole life. The outside world is dangerous, Mama explains; she will understand when she’s older, but she cannot set foot beyond the door. Astrid longs to see the world; to meet other children; to live in the farmhouse with Mama. But what she longs for most of all is to see the stars. Then one night, a stranger unlocks the a stranger with wings. She has come to take Astrid to a secret city in the sky called London Overhead, far above the highest peak of the Shard. For Astrid, like her, is a Librae – and will soon grow wings of her own . . . Astrid is swept into a breathtaking and magical world of new friendships, sweeping adventures and unimaginable discoveries at the ancient, beautiful school for Librae Starminster. But quickly she learns that all is not well in the glimmering city. And when rumours abound of missing children in London Underfoot, she begins to realise th...

 By: Zipora Klein Jakob Location: NF 920 JAK Genre: Holocaust A emotional roller-coaster of a book. It's a amazing story to read The unforgettable true story of one Jewish orphan’s survival against impossible odds, and her lifelong quest for family, safety and a sense of belonging. Elida Friedman was never supposed to have been born. In the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, Nazi law forbade Jewish women from giving birth. Yet despite the danger they faced, Dr. Jonah Friedman and his wife Tzila, choose to bring a daughter into the world – a little girl they name Elida, meaning non-birth in Hebrew. To ensure her survival, the couple must smuggle their precious baby out of the ghetto into the arms of strangers. So begins a life of constant upheaval, with Elida changing families, countries, continents and even names, countless times. Surviving the war and the Holocaust that stole her parents, the young woman never gives up hope of finding a sense of family, and the chance to belong. A moving,...

 By: Leigh Bardugo Location: FIC BAR Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Spanish Inquisition Historical fiction meets magical fantasy From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position. What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and ...

 By: R A Spratt  Location: FIC SPR Genre: Fiction, Mental Health “ I can learn anything and travel anywhere without leaving town. That is the magic of books. I can travel around the world, into space, back and forth in time. All through the power of reading. ” Funny, shocking and from bestselling author R. A. Spratt, a whip-smart take on Shakespearean moral dilemmas Selby hates homework. She would rather watch daytime television – anything to escape the tedium of school, her parents’ bookshop and small-town busybodies. So Selby didn’t plan to read Hamlet. She certainly never planned to meet him. This novel transports Selby, and the reader, into the cold and crime-ridden play itself. Here she meets heavy with grief, the young prince is overthinking and over everything. Selby can relate. But unlike Hamlet, Selby isn’t afraid of making decisions. In her world, Selby is used to feeling overlooked. But in the bloody, backstabbing world of Shakespeare, Selby’s good conscience and qu...

 By: Brittany N. Williams  Location: FIC WIL Genre: Fantasy,  Historical Fiction, LGBGT THE COVER!!!!!! ...a fun, swashbuckling adventure set in Shakespeare's London with a fast-moving plot and lots of things to love! Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare's acting company, The King's Men. Joan's skill with her blades comes from a magical ability to control metal-an ability gifted by her Head Orisha, Ogun. Because her whole family is Orisha-blessed, the Sands family have always kept tabs on the Fae presence in London. Usually that doesn't involve much except noting the faint glow around a Fae's body as they try to blend in with London society, but lately, there has been an uptick in brutal Fae attacks. After Joan wounds a powerful Fae and saves the son of a cruel Lord, she is drawn into political intrigue in the human and Fae worlds.Swashbuckling, romantic, and full of the sights and s...

 By: Kalynn Bayron ion: FIC BAY Genre: Horror LGBGT At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night? This heart-pounding slasher Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film,  Curse of Camp Mirror Lake . The more realistic the fear, the better for business. But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all  too  real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected? Review by Charlie Well... I don't think I'll ever be able to look at owls the same again. Kalynn Bayron really can writ...

By: Pablo Vierci Location: NF 920 Exploration Genre: Survival Story This book is written by a journalist who is friend with the victims of the Andes's tragedy. He interviews each of the 16 survivors and retold the story using the memories and the feeling of these amazing men. They survived 72 days in the mountain without food and with very frozen temperatures. And still their memories are plenty of hope and affection for each other. This is the story of the society of the snow. It was 13 October 1972. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, carrying a team of young rugby players, their families and friends, took off for the very last time. A deadly miscalculation saw F571 crash directly into the Andean mountains to devastating consequences: the body of the plane broke violently into two, its floor torn to smithereens; seats flew out of the air taking passengers with them. In the weeks that followed, the remaining people who were on board - the society of the snow - emerged to fight a dire,...

  By: Adam Kay Genre: Random and ridiculous inventions Location: NF 608 KAY Have you ever thought about the fact that before the fridge you’d have had maggots in your margarine? Ever thought about what you might use to wipe your bum before loo roll was a thing? And what about what everybody did before computers?! In this third hilarious book from Adam Kay and Henry Paker you’ll learn about all of these and more. Full of funny findings and disgusting discoveries, you’ll uncover important inventions that changed the world and saved lives like electricity and the internet, and captivating creations that absolutely did not (but are still a lot of fun) like smell o vision and trampolines. An A to Kay to Z of the best, grossest and frankly most ridiculous inventions in the world. In the latest laugh-out-loud book from the record-breaking and extremely handsome Adam Kay and Henry Paker, you’ll learn about everything ever invented, from the daft to the disgusting to the downright dangerous...

 By: Susan Rigetti Location: FIC RIG Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Mystery "I picked this up on a whim and it unexpectedly became a new favourite. Just go read it, you won't regret it" Steph Netflix’s Inventing Anna and Hulu’s The Dropout meets  Catch Me If You Can in this captivating novel about an ambitious young woman who gets trapped in a charismatic con artist’s scam. A Most Anticipated Book by  Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, Parade ,  New York Post , Shondaland, E!,  Fortune , PopSugar, and more! “It’s exciting, it’s surprising, it’s satisfying, it’s darkly funny, and it will keep you guessing.”—Linda Holmes for Today.com After a rough year at NYU, aspiring writer Lora Ricci is thrilled to land a summer internship at ELLE magazine where she meets Cat Wolff, contributing editor and enigmatic daughter of a clean-energy mogul. Cat takes Lora under her wing, soliciting her help with side projects and encouraging her writing. As a friendship emerges betwee...

By: Morris Gleitzman Location: FIC GLE Genre: Birds, Fiction and Gleitzman The people of the world are puzzled. Birds everywhere are sitting on highways, on buildings, on BBQs, stopping traffic, lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Then a boy and his pet budgie discover the secret to what the birds are up to. Jay and Clyde embark on an urgent journey – an exciting, emotional, sometimes hilarious, always risky journey with a message about the environment for humans.   Elisha This was a weird one. It starts out from the POV of a pet budgie, which was  fantastic.  Eventually it adds in his child owner too, and we get their adventures through their eyes. It’s part apocalypse, but also adventure and activism and secret agents and bad guys and defeating impossible odds, with some heartache and magical realism thrown in. Which is quite the combo. But mostly it’s about the love of a boy called Jay and his budgie Clyde being stronger than anything else in the world. Kathleen This story co...

 By: Liselle Sambury   Location: FIC SAM Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal The Haunting of Hill House  meets  Sadie  in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart. Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls… A decade later, Brittney is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her abusive mother, a bestselling author who claims her stay at “Miracle...

 By: Frances Hardinge Location: FIC HAR Genre: Fantasy. Horror, Magic In a world where anyone can cast a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them. Kellen does not fully understand his unique gift, but helps those who are cursed, like his friend Nettle who was trapped in the body of a bird for years. She is now Kellen's constant companion and his closest ally. But the Unraveller carries a curse himself and, unless he and Nettle can remove it, Kellen is a danger to everything – and everyone – around him . . . Natalylta recommends... It’s wonderful that in a story about unravelling - curses, yes, but also the tangled webs of resentment and hate and pain - Frances Hardinge instead weaves a very complex and deeply nuanced tale with a whole onion-worth of layers. This is a story for which it’s hard to give an “elevator pitch”, a deft distillation of ideas and themes in a few pithy sentences. It’s too complex for it, and its characters are layered and messy and...

 By: Alli Parker  Location: FIC PAR Genre:  Historical Fiction, War, Japan, Australia A stirring story of love and hope, based on the incredible true story of Australia's first Japanese war bride and a love that changed a nation forever. Gordon Parker is just an eager eighteen-year-old Australian boy desperate to fight for his country, and Nobuko 'Cherry' Sakuramoto is a sixteen-year-old girl struggling to survive in Japan in the aftermath of World War II. But when they fall in love, they change the course of history. When Gordon arrived in Japan, he expected ruthless samurai, angry Japanese men ready to kill Australians at every corner. Instead, he found Cherry, terrified of ex-enemy soldiers, a 16-year-old survivor of the atomic bomb. Against all the rules and against all odds, they fall in love. But when Gordon discovers the White Australia Policy prevents Cherry coming home with him as his war bride, Gordon does what any 20-year-old soldier would do. He vows to fight...

 By: Ali Novak Location: FIC NOV Genre: Romance, Fiction, Young Adult Moving in with twelve boys was not part of her plan. Jackie's goal is perfection--perfect grades, the perfect look, getting into the perfect school. If she can achieve that, then maybe her too-busy mom and dad will take notice. But when her parents die in a tragic accident, Jackie is shipped off across the country to live with the Walters, her new guardians...who just happen to have twelve sons (well, eleven, but their daughter, Parker, is basically one of the boys). The Walter boys are loud, dirty, annoying--and, okay, some of the older boys might be Greek god level hot, but they don't think a city girl belongs on their horse ranch. How is Jackie supposed to fit into their chaotic world when she needs to keep her parents' memory alive by living up to the promise of perfect? But as Jackie spends more time the Walter boys, she begins to wonder if the perfection she's always strived for isn't the on...

 By: J C Cervantes Location: FIC CER Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Paranormal Cover Art Love!! ! The characterizations are excellent, and the plot is interesting enough to warrant a movie adaptation. Keep your napkins close and dive into this book blindly! You won't regret it!- Nilfur- Goodreads Best friends and soul mates since they were kids, Hart Augusto and Ruby Armenta were poised to take on senior year together when Hart tragically drowns in a boating accident. Absolutely shattered, Ruby struggles to move on from the person she knows was her forever love. Hart can’t let go of Ruby either…. Due to some divine intervention, he’s offered a second chance. Only it won’t be as simple as bringing him back to life—instead, Hart’s soul is transferred to the body of local bad boy. When Hart returns to town as Jameson, he realizes that winning Ruby back will be more challenging than he’d imagined. For one, he’s forbidden from telling Ruby the truth. And with each day he spends as Jameson...